Karl 
THE WHITE STRIPES are getting sued by Jim Diamond — the co-producer of their debut album and a mixer on De Stijl — who claims he played a pivotal role in creating the band's signature sound. Meanwhile, we have the Jack White-penned Coca-Coal ad for your viewing pleasure — and it sounds a bit different than I thought it would.
GRAM PARSONS: A documentary on the mythic musician written by Long Ryder Sid Griffin is coming to DVD on July 11th.
CALEXICO: Known for fusing the sounds of Mexican mariachi, Italian spaghetti westerns and American folk noir, Joey Burns addresses the more straightforward rock sound of the band's new album: “I think on each album there’s always been a little something added or changed… This one just has more of an obvious shift.” You can stream the album this week from AOL Music.
JUDAS PRIEST: The band's next album is inspired by Nostradamus, the 16th-century soothsayer. Why didn't Spinal Tap think of that? Maybe because Al Stewart already did…
ARCTIC MONKEYS frontman Alex Turner isn't concerned over charges that the soon-to-be-released EP is “cashing in” while the band is hot: “We want to do things our way, and people think it's arrogance, so it's inevitable some people will get tired of us.”
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: With American Idol attacking the Rod Stewart catalog this week, I thought it time to haul out The Faces' “Stay With Me,” which I think is live, and “Maggie May,” in which Ron Wood and Rod are mocking the lip-synch for Top of the Pops.
ISLANDS: The trippy folk-pop on the recently released Return To The Sea is getting “universal acclaim” on Metacritic and streaming in its entirety this week via MySpace.
LESLIE FEIST talks about juggling her solo career with Broken Social Scene appearances: “(I)t is a bit of a gear switch to go from, you know, the other day I was in the middle of my own tour through the states, and Jason Collett and I who are on this tour, we both had to fly to New York to do Conan with Broken Social Scene, and so we didn’t sleep for about 56 hours, and went straight off stage at our own shows in god knows where, onto a plane to New York, joined Broken, and got on another plane, and went back to Iowa or something. And that was a bit of a gear switch, to go from our own tour to being members of the biggest collective (laughs), but it was kind of a homecoming in a way as well, so its not something I have to think about too hard.” While the Conan appearance got yanked off YouTube, you cans still see one of Feist's “Mushaboom” videos there.
HARD-FI: The Clash-influenced band's “Middle Eastern Holiday” makes Song of the Day at NPR. It's about Iraq and — like the Clash's “Rock the Casbah” — manages to work the word “minaret” into the lyrics.
PERE UBU: Ubu Projex reports on upcoming albums from Pere Ubu and Rocket From the Tombs, but points you to some classic Ubu tracks on MySpace.
LOOSE FUR: The Village Voice runs a snarky, yet positive review for Born Again in the U.S.A., “which besides being cleverly titled is also quite good…”
THE TAMPA BAY DEVIL RAYS got a fever.. and the only prescription is… more cowbell! Yes, more cowbell. And even more cowbell.
THE TOM-KITTEN COMETH! Cruise and Holmes “joyously welcomed the arrival of a baby girl, Suri, today,” Cruise's rep said in a statement after People first broke the news Tuesday afternoon. The name Suri has its origins in Hebrew meaning “princess,” or in Persian meaning “red rose,” the rep added. I guess Xenu is a boy's name. Even the normally fluffy E! channel can't help but poke fun at the Scientology-dictated “silent birth.” Let's all celebrate with an encore of “Havin' My Alien Baby!”
MORE TOM-KAT: Cruise claims he was only joking about his plan to eat the placenta of his new baby. An online poll showed that 84 percent blamed the press for Cruise's bad PR, but an investigation showed 14,000 of the 18,000 votes came from ten computers. Cruise walked out on an interviewer who suggested that experts say that dyslexia cannot be cured by Scientology.
BROOKE SHIELDS gave birth to a girl named Grier Hammond Henchy. The irony of Shields and Holmes giving birth within a day of each other is delish!
CELEBRITY BABY NAMES: The New York Times explores theories as to “Why Stars Name Babies Moxie, Moses and Apple,” including the notions that stars are competing with each other and the public to be seen as creative or different (and able to get away with it).
BRADGELINA: Jolie and Pitt are enraging residents of Namibia with their security detail's heavy-handed demands for privacy. The team, which is reported to include former members of a notorious apartheid-era counter-insurgency unit, has blocked public roads and beaches, doused a photog who snapped Pitt and Maddox with pepper spray, and threatened to put others in the hospital. And it looks like Pitt got the tattoo for Maddox on his lower back, not the back of his neck as claimed earlier.
TOM-KITTEN vs. BABY BRADGELINA: USA Today polled celebrity watchers to find out which pregnancy is generating the most interest. This story should have run in Uterus Weekly.
WHITNEY HOUSTON is back in rehab, according to the National Enquirer.
THE SIMPSONS: Scientologist Nancy Cartwright, the voice for Bart Simpson, got the show to remove a joke: “Mormonism? That’s the second freakiest religion in America!” PLUS: The HeiDeas blog analyzes the linguistics of the show.
JOHN McTIERNAN, director of films like Die Hard and Predator, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in the unfolding federal investigation of wiretapping and other alleged wrongdoing by Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano.
COLIN FARRELL has settled his sex tape suit with ex-Playmate Nicole Narain, but is proceeding against the Internet Commerce Group (which in turn may sue Narain for breach of contract).
WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, JOE DiMAGGIO? The author of movie classic The Graduate is completely broke and faces eviction from his home.
LINDSAY LOHAN is trying to shed her admitted “party-girl image” by partying until dawn with Nicole Richie and Eddie Vedder after her Saturday Night Live gig.
EVANGELINE LILLY: Wednesday is Lost night, so I had to note that the star who complained about men looking at her the other day was photographed in a bunny suit at Eastertime, putting a bit of a Playboy spin on the pagan element of the holiday.
NANOTECH: Molecules that self-assemble into nanoscale filaments may help knit brain and spinal-cord injuries. Though the Nature article is subscription only, NanoDot has blurbed a bit more of it.
EDU-BLOGGING: Per usual, I'm tardy in noting the 62nd Carnival of Education, which has a Passover plagues theme.
IRAQ: Bill Roggio is merging with the Counterterrorism Blog and will be will be embedding in Afghanistan in mid-May, with plans to go on to Northern Africa and Iraq. Michael Yon, already in Afghanistan en route to Iraq, has a must-read piece explaining what he means in saying that Iraq is in a civil war, media coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan and more. Food for thought for proponents and opponents of the invasion alike. I was just directed to a tidbit buried in a piece for London's Sunday Times by Abdel Bari Atwan, a “journalist” on good terms with Osama bin Laden: “Like Zarqawi, many Arabs fleeing American retaliation in Afghanistan after 9/11 found refuge with Ansar al-Islam. But then came an unexpected development. According to Dr Muhammad al-Masari, a Saudi specialist on Al-Qaeda’s ideology, Saddam established contact with the 'Afghan Arabs' as early as 2001, believing he would be targeted by the US once the Taliban was routed. In this version, disputed by other commentators, Saddam funded Al-Qaeda operatives to move into Iraq with the proviso that they would not undermine his regime. Sources close to the Ba’ath regime have told me that Saddam also used to send messengers to buy small plots of land from farmers in Sunni areas. In the middle of the night soldiers would bury arms and money caches for later use by the resistance.” And three suspected insurgents appear to have been trying to plant a roadside bomb when they popped up on the video of a Predator spy plane. They didn't get to finish the job.
IRAN has pledged 50 to 100 million dollars to support Hamas, but some Iranians think that money would be better spent at home.
LIBYA marked the 20th anniversary of a US air raid on the country with a Lionel Richie concert in front of the ruined home of Muammar Gadaffi in Tripoli. No, really. Definitive proof that the UN Human Rights Commission is worthless.
NYC COYOTE UPDATE: Hal the coyote was not wily enough to escape capture in Central Park, but another was spotted in a Bronx park on Tuesday and given a much more pretentious name: Jacob Van Cortlandt, after a NYC mayor in the early 1700s who had a hand in the land transactions for the park. Hal, the Central Park coyote, died late last month as he was being tagged for release upstate.
RUFUS THE TURKEY UPDATE: The wild turkey that beguiled area residents and served as unofficial greeter, pet and tourist attraction at the Jacques Spur Junction Cafe in Cul de Sac, Idaho was apparently killed by a hunter.
JUMBO SHRIMP: A biologist in Colombia is in possession of what may be the world's largest shrimp.
COCO THE BABY TAPIR had her debut at an English zoo.
ENGLISH PET HOARDING: In West Sussex, over 200 dogs were found in a 40-foot shed. In Manchester, police found 200 reptiles and rodents in a man's garage, but the owner denies throwing snakes at the officers who raided his home.
THE HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUAA officially lost its title as Hawaii's state fish more than a decade ago, but is set to reclaim the honor, just as soon as legislators can spell it.
OCTOPUSES (or is it octopi?) have elbows! Who'da thunkit?
